When Ashwin is India’s spin mainstay Sri Lanka will rely on their veteran spinner Rangana Herath, who will get into a battle to prove his supremacy over Indian spinner Ashwin. This is a battle between a left-arm spinner and a right-arm wrist spinner.

India are all set to host Sri Lanka for a three-match Test series, starting from November 16 at Eden Garden in Kolkata. As India’s key bowling weapon Ravichandran Ashwinreturned to mainstream cricket after a break he will be hungry for wickets against the visiting team Sri Lanka. On India’s spin-friendly soil both of them will look for maximum exploits at the end of the series. Herath, who is coming to play this series beating Pakistan single-handedly in the UAE, has already expressed his wish to win their first Test match in India. Sri Lanka are yet to win a Test match in India, hence Herath’s wish to win a Test match has been boosted by his Man of the Series-winning performance against Pakistan. At the same time, Ashwin is on the verge of becoming the fastest bowler to claim 300 wickets in Test cricket. But, in a battle for supremacy we must look at the contributions from two of the most fruitful spinners of the time.

Test Bowling figures

Bowler

Matches

Innings

Runs

Wickets

Best

Economy

Average

Ashwin

52

98

7377

292

7/59

2.89

25.26

R. Herath

85

115

11269

405

9/127

2.80

27.82

In this table, we can see Sri Lanka’s star spinner, who is a successful successor of legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, has more wickets than Ashwin, but one has to understand that the Indian wizard played 33 matches lesser than him. Though Herath has already joined the 400 club Ashwin has better bowling average then Herath.

Performance in Home/Away matches

Ravichandran Ashwin

Match

Innings

Runs

Wickets

Best

Economy

Average

Strike rate

Fifer

Home

32

63

4701

208

7/59

2.75

22.64

49.30

20

Away

20

35

2667

84

7/83

3.17

31.75

59.9

6

Here we can see that Ashwin has done exceptionally well on home soil but he struggled a bit at overseas conditions. While his average at home is 22.64 he proved costlier at overseas conditions because away conditions are always hard to get accustomed. His strike rate at overseas conditions is also very high that means he had to toil hard to get wickets at overseas conditions.

Rangana Herath

Match

Innings

Runs

Wickets

Best

Economy

Average

Strike rate

Fifer

Home

46

86

6231

263

9/127

2.76

23.69

51.4

25

Away

31

53

3892

102

8/63

2.97

38.15

76.9

5

Since Herath played more matches than Ashwin he has taken more wickets than Ashwin, but the Indian cricketer holds a better bowling record as his strike rate is far better than the Sri Lankan talisman. At the same time, Ashwin’s away average and strike rate are also outstanding and the all-rounder picked up six fifers on the overseas soil while Herath has five so far.

Performance in winning causes

Value of a player depends on their utility. If a player can help a team to reach home his name will always be counted for his match winning skills. So, here are the performances of these two blokes on match winning causes.

Bowler

Matches

Innings

Overs

Runs

Wickets

Best

Economy

Average

Ashwin

31

62

1562.3

4173

211

7/59

2.67

44.4

R. Herath

35

69

1658.5

4290

227

9/127

2.58

43.8

In this case, Ashwin has played lesser matches than Herath and took 211 wickets while Herath settled down with 227 wickets in 96 innings. Since Ashwin burst onto the international cricket he has played a key role in India’s victories and while Herath in his 85 matches he has won only 35 matches. There is no question that Ashwin has better wicket-taking skills than Herath. But, we have to keep in mind that Herath is the only experienced cricketer in Sri Lankan squad while rest of the players are yet to get back to mojo.

So, during the Test series in India both of them are expected to play a crucial role for their respective teams. At his home soil, Ashwin will pose a big challenge to Sri Lanka’s inexperienced batsmen. As Ashwin is a clever bowler he can fox a batsman in any condition with his variations.Meanwhile, Herath’s best bowling spell against India is 7 for 48 at Galle while Ashwin’s best bowling figure against Sri Lanka is 6 for 46. So, it is expected that cricketer spectators will enjoy a good battle between these two spin wizards during the forthcoming series.